Transport

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Introduction

Calcutta with its ports, its factories, its railway stations, its large population, had a vital need for transport of all kinds for goods and passengers. Indeed still today Calcutta has the most varied transport options of all Indian cities including such curiosities as handpull rickshaws, trams and innovations such as the underground metro. The many uncertainties of the decade put a great deal of extra strain on all those transport systems, and brought many into contact with ways of getting about they would not have considered previously. The military situation, economic and technical changes also found a reflection in the city’s street with many more jeeps and army lorries beginning to clog the streets and the famous Sikh taxi driver becoming more prominent figure. Some made enough money to even buy their first car. The end of the decade with independence saw further changes with Calcutta State Transport Corporation sorting bus travel, plus plans for the metro railway emerging.

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Transpport

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Calcutta traffic

Calcutta's traffic is usually snarled. And the reasons are clearly shown. Shuffling coolies and pedestrians with little regard for their lives seem completely oblivious to the perils of automotive traffic.

Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s

(source: webpage http://oldsite.library.upenn.edu/etext/sasia/calcutta1947/? Monday, 16-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of David N. Nelson, South Asia Bibliographer, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania)

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

CITY TRANSPORTATION

Getting There. It sounds silly but you are going to be told how to get there before you will be advised where to go (The old Army way of doing things.)

The G.I. Way. G.I. trucks and buses leave on schedule for nearly all military installations in the Calcutta area; they depart from the Hindusthan motor pool during the day and from the motor pool across the street from the Grand Hotel during the evening. Inquire at your own camp for the exact times of departure or ask the M.P. on duty at the motor pools in the city.

Trams and Buses. Heartily recommended as first-aid measures for your wallet. They go to all parts of the city, run often, and are quite comfortable. The trams only charge one anna between transfer points. Ride in the front car. Esplanade is the central and main terminus. From there cars can be had for all routes.

Rickshaws. Good for that short hop across town. Pay only three annas per mile, with the addition of a two anna tip if you see fit. Ride only one to a rickshaw - that chap pulling it is a human being.

Gharries. By law, rates are supposed to be posted in the carriage. Ask to see the card. Pay one rupee, eight annas per hour or approximately twelve annas per mile. Tips are optional. It is an accepted fact that gharries and rickshaws get a little more at night - BUT ONLY A LITTLE. "Out-of-bounds" with women.

Taxis. At last something as fast as prima-cord has been found: the local taxi meter. You will find taxis fast and comfortable - but expensive. If you ride one, be sure that the driver pushes the flag up and down to clear the meter as you step inside. The taxi driver must accept a fare for anywhere within the city limits; he does not, however, have to drive outside of the city's limits. Don't let him bully you into an agreed price before accepting you as a fare at night or when it rains. The meter works at night, same rates; also when it rains. The fare, as with the gharry, is for all passengers, and not per person. Watch the meter. It should show one rupee after the flag has been lowered at the start of your trip. That covers the first mile. For each added ¼ mile the meter should register 4 annas additional. Tip unnecessary. Judge the distance covered and if it seems you are being gypped by a fast meter don't hesitate to complain. Call a policeman or take the taxi's number. And pay only what the ride was legally worth, ignoring the taxiwallah's screams of rage. He will try to embarrass you in public to make you silence him with gold - but you know that game of old. Violence of any degree is UNNECESSARY.

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945: at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

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Bicycles

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Cyclist at 142^nd US Military Hospital

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

Cycling through the Monsoon

October 22, 1945

Dearest Ritter, my sweetheart:

Imagine if you can, the hardest kind of downpour, such as we have occasionally in Ohio for 15 minutes during severe storms. Imagine that, then presume to think what the situation is here. There have been literally sheets of rain glassing the sky for 96 hours, with only short intervals of respite. At the moment, 9:45 p.m., it has been raining so hard that conversation could not be conducted for 45 minutes. And it has been raining like that all day.

Last night, while I tried to carry on as AOD (acting officer on duty), it rained desperately in spurts which came every 15 minutes and lasted about five or ten. Synonymous with the ringing of the phone for me to go out on a call would be the start of another downpour. Tonight we have lightning and thunder with the rain. It looks outside now as it did in the opening scenes of Bromfield's "The Rains Came."

This noon the water was over six inches deep behind the ward and over the road. Col. Peterson telephoned for transportation and an ambulance came for us. This afternoon I hit upon the idea of riding my bike through it, for the storm had let up a little.

But coming back at 5:00, I had to splash through about four inches, came out of it safely. The thin-tired bike makes it easily through the oozy mud of the lawns, which is something that our heavier ones would not do.

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta, October 22, 1945.

(Source: pp. 223 ff. of Elaine Pinkerton (ed.): “From Calcutta With Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard” Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2002 / Reproduced by courtesy of Texas Tech University Press)

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

Cycling

In any case, bicycles were always an indispensable part of life in Calcutta. Its flat topography made it a joy to traverse even with the heavy and gear-less roadsters that were the norm. I remember my father being given a beautiful, green Raleigh bike with chain cover and saddle-bags as a stand-by in case he ran out of petrol coupons for the Company Hillman Minx! During the holidays from the Hill Schools we attended (the holiday extended from the first week December to the last week of February approximately) a huge percentage of the daytime was spent on and with a bike and I really do not believe there is a single street, road, lane, para or whatever within a 10 mile radius of the Ochterlony Monument that I have not been on on a bike. One had, however, in Calcutta proper, to be careful of the tramlines! And in the monsoon, the open manhole cover that some bright spark had opened in the mistaken idea that it would help to drain the floodwater more quickly!

Mike Devery, schoolboy. Calcutta, 1940s

(source: Internet communications September 2004)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Mike Devery)

hire bicycles for an-anna-an-hour

I will never forget how we used to hire bicycles for an-anna-an-hour from Royd Street and cycle up and down Park Street, finally treating ourselves to the best ice cream in town from Magnolia's. Though Park Street has changed so much, it will always be my favourite street since it is Calcutta's heartbeat!"

Nilima Dutta, Calcutta. 1930-40s

(source: Barry O'Brien: Nostalgic - Park Street by email from "Roger Storey" <yerots@sbcglobal.net Mon, 23 Jun 2003 17:12:02)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Barry O'Brien)

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Automobiles

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

The end of Speeding in Calcutta

The main impact of the war was the closure of the Red Road between the Maidan and Fort William to become a fighter air base from which a squadron of (I believe) Hurricanes operated. Pre-war the Red Road had been a wonderful stretch on which to take a motor-car to speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour! Now there was nowhere else in Calcutta where one could safely exceed even 30 miles per hour. The advent of the solid-fuel burning abominations that were attached to cars to alleviate the petrol shortage and the nasty habit of crowds in the vicinity of accidents to haul the driver out and beat him nearly to death made (relatively)-safe driving a necessity.

Mike Devery, schoolboy. Calcutta, 1940s

(source: Internet communications September 2004)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Mike Devery)

An Accident on the Barrackpore Road

We drove home in torrential rain and struck a group of soldiers somewhere along the Barrackpore road. We turned over twice I seem to recall: Nan had a cut head, I was unhurt. There were two or three men sprawled in the muddy, roaring waters of the street. People came and took Nan back to barracks. I knew that two must be dead; but remembered and remember now, very little. They were members of a gang of American GI deserters, known in the area, who highjacked cars at nights. We spent weeks of misery in Court, and finally were exonerated, because witnesses had seen them link arms across the road and form a line to halt us. I had not seen them in the dark and the rain. I have never driven since.

Dirk Bogarde, Air photographic intelligence officer. Calcutta, Sept. 1945

(source: pages 138-145, Dirk Bogarde: Snakes and Ladders London; Chatto & Windus, 1978.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Dirk Bogarde)

Practicing my driving skills

Having learnt to drive whilst based in Chittagong I applied for my Navy driving licence and passed the test. I then used to haunt the transport depot looking for any driving duties to practice my new skills. Although we now had peace the situation in India was volatile with the push for home rule and rioting was widespread. Any Forces building or vehicle was liable to attack and we lost two men whilst in Calcutta.

Eric Cowham, Royal Navy, Calcutta, 1945

(source: A7229856 HMS Tyne, Burma and India at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

Driving VIPs

In Durban, I spent six weeks in a Transit Camp then sailed for Bombay. From there I travelled by train to Calcutta which took three days and four nights. Serious transport work started at Barackpore, twenty miles north of Calcutta, transporting goods and staff to Dumdum Airport.

One run I remember, I was with a Ford station wagon. There were two drivers and we had a full load and were driving onto a ferry over two planks. A little Welsh man was guiding us on when he disappeared into the water and all we could see at first was his toupe floating on the water.

A second special job was at Camilla, an isolated area with a grass airstrip.We drove the top brass including Mountbatten and also Vera Lynn at times.At one time I was running the Transport Section because the Sergeant was sent home as he never perspired.

The Viceroy commissioned Sikh officers because they knew the area. We drove hundreds of miles to signals units with secret and confidential information. The journeys were often arduous, there were no signposts and although the officers got a week’s rest the driver went next day on another ten day journey. I did have two weeks hill station leave, first in Darjeeling and then the Himalayas.

At the end of 1944-early 1945, my Unit went by sea to Rangoon. Four of us were left behind to sort out transport in the maintainance area. At Fort Belvedere, Calcutta, we waited until a flight could be arranged to get the four of us to Rangoon.

Bernard Miller, South East Asia Command, Motor Transport Section, Calcutta, 1944-5

(source: A3568881 South East Asia Command at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

The Horse Versus Horsepower

But living in this suburb presented me with a problem of transport. For the white man in India public transport was a 'no-go', and I had sold my old Rover on leaving Asansol, since it hardly seemed up to the journey by road to Calcutta ... So I bought a 'pram', as the old Austin Sevens of those days were contemptuously called. But it went well, like a duck on dry land. It did, however, cause me same trouble because my two orderlies maintained, not without reason, that they looked fools perched up on the narrow back seat of the pram and being jiggled about like two absurd dolls. Apart from my success with the 'pram', I had managed a very effective fiddle with the Inspector of Police below, as a result of which I had a permanent lien on one of the police horses stabled below—its food and grooming being on the police budget. As a riding horse it wasn't much, but it had a sour and supercilious look and a kick like a battering ram that must have made it an ideal police horse. I used to approach it with extreme caution and I do not think it liked me very much.

Micheal Carritt, ICS officer. Calcutta, 1930s.

(source: Micheal Carritt: A Mole in the Crown. New Delhi: Rupa 1986)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Micheal Carritt )

Through Burma with General Slim’s Daimler

General Slim was very concnerned about his Daimler. He had been driven in it for 5 years now and he was very attached to it. Furthermore he was convinced that now the war was won, he would not hold quite the same influence as before, and that nobody would be very bothered about getting his Daimler back from Burma.

He had apparently got sufficiently good contacts in Calcutta that he could be assured of getting it shipped back from Calcutta to the UK. The question was - how to get it from somewhere near Chittagong in Burma to Calcutta.

Palmer was to be the solution. General Slim had known him for years, and trusted him to take good care of his car. In fact I dont know which was more important to my father - caring for the car or the General. I have a sneaky suspicion that the car might have won if it had come to a contest.

So General Slim asked my father to take the car to Calcutta. I don't believe it was an order. I think General Slim knew that the army would not agree to what he was proposing to do, and so the army was not to know. This was between my father and General Slim, and if Palmer had felt it was too risky, I dont think General Slim would have pushed him.

So the plan was to drive a Daimler through the jungle across Burma, and into India and to reach Calcutta where it could be handed over. My father was told he could take a soldier with him, and my father chose his companion. I dont know his name - my father didnt tell me.

They set off with nothing better than a map which when unfolded showed the whole of Burma and India, which gives an idea of the scale of the map. I dont even think that Chittagong would necessarily have even been marked.

Father viewed the whole thing as a huge adventure. He related to me how they travelled through jungle, often not on roads at all, but on beaten tracks. They went through tiny villages where the population had not seen a white European before, let alone two driving a Daimler.

He described how they would negotiate with the villagers for accommodation for the night and for food, and described the mixed feelings he had in one village when he went into the hut they had given him for the night. My father was always a very smartly dressed man in civilan life, and was clean shaven ( he had even shaved his head to cope with the heat and the lice). My father could not conceive of not shaving, and so in a hut in a village in the middle of Bruma, my father got out his shaving mirror and proceeded to shave himself in the normal way, except that in the mirror he could see dozens of eyes peeping though the gaps in the wooden structure, as his new hosts checked him out very thoroughly. I often wonder what they made of this short, young man who must have appeared out of the jungle in a car, and proceeded to behave for all the world as if he was at home in England.

They hit a problem when they reached the Irrawaddy river. From the rudimentary map they had, it was not clear where, if anywhere, there was a bridge. They had no language with which to ask anybody, but somehow they managed to establish with the local people that there was no way of crossing the river easily.

Not deterred, they built a pontoon with the help of the villagers, and they loaded the car onto the pontoon and floated it off down the river. Apparently it was quite fast flowing and even using large poles they were swept a long way downstream before they finally reached the other side. However, as they had no real idea of where they were, or what was on the other side, they took the view that one place was a good as another, and they just set off again.

All in all, my father's adventure took him 3 weeks. He succeeded in bringing the Daimler to Calcutta, and then the war was over for him.

Leslie Richard Palmer ( known as Dick), driver to Brigadier Slim, Rangoon to Calcutta, 1945

(source: A1940753 Getting back from Burma with a car at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

A day out at the front

[Pilot Officer Thirlwell was a photo-reconnaissance Hurricane pilot, who arrived at Magwe just after the last of his squadron's aircraft crashed. As he had no job, he was sent] to Lashio to investigate the possibility of flying out the squadron personnel by China Airways to India. I went to the orderly room Flight Sergeant for transport, and he said 'you can have this Wolseley Fourteen, but I want something in return'. So I swapped a typewriter I found in the house in which I was billeted for this car, and drove to Lashio. Having confirmed the availability of China Airways, I was flown to Calcutta, only to be sent back to Burma, where I spent most of my time rescuing the special cameras from crashed photo-recce aircraft. After getting out of Burma for a second time, I had an extraordinary period based at the Great Eastern in Calcutta, the most expensive hotel in town. I would get into my Hurricane at Dum-Dum, fly to Chittagong where I refuelled from petrol drums using a hand pump. Having spent the night with the British Consul, I would fly to photograph Rangoon, before returning for more fuel at Chittagong, and on to Dum-Dum to get the film processed as quickly as possible. After a shower in the Great Eastern I would sit down to dinner being served by bearers in white coats and gloves.

Pilot Officer Thirlwell, pilot of an RAF photo-reconnaissance Hurricane. Caclutta, mid 1940s .

(source: page 360, Julian Thompson: “The Imperial War Museum Book of the The War in Burma 1942-1945. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 2002)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Julian Thompson)

Father Brown’s little accident

Sloping slightly from the road there is a fairly broad, verge of grass on which visiting cars are parked. As there are no gates or fences they drive straight in. When Father Brown arrived one afternoon his taxi-wallah bucked the car on to the grass and parked it not many feet from the water, so that without turning he could drive straight away when the hour for return arrived.

After his chat with Douglass, and tea with the Sisters on the other side of the road, Brown got into his car and shouted for the driver, who ran up and without taking his seat put in his hand and took off the brake. The car at once rapidly ran down the few feet between it and the tank, and plunged into the deep water, quickly disappearing with its weighty inmate below the surface Douglass had been standing by, saying goodbye to his Superior. In a split second he dived into the water and into the car at the bottom, extracted its drowning occupant, brought him to the surface, and propelled him to the bank. Father Brown was at least twenty stone in weight, was suffering from elephantiasis in both legs, and was tangled in his white cotton cassock. The car remained out of sight deep in the mud at the bottom of the water. The next day divers with ropes came and it was lifted to the bank. News of an accident quickly spread, men and boys ran to the tank, agitated Sisters came hurrying over the road, the Father's car had vanished, but there on the bank were two drenched men,' one of rounded and ample proportions, the other spare and thin, with white cotton cassocks clinging to their bodies, the elder gasping for breath, spluttering and stuttering as he protested, 'Don't worry about me; I am all right, after all, I can only die once!

How the problem of dry garments was solved was not divulged. It was manifestly impossible for anything of Douglass's to cover more than a small portion of his Superior's anatomy, but probably wrapped in blankets he was conveyed the ten miles in a closed car to the Mission House, where the matter was treated as an unimportant trifle in the course of the day's proceedings. How deep the water was at the place where the car made its plunge cannot be stated accurately, for the depth varied according to the season, but the task of bringing a heavy and infirm man out of the car at the bottom to the surface and getting him safely on to the bank was one which to the ordinary man might seem insuperable, but Douglass managed it. How it was done cannot be told, for Donglass's lips were ever closed tight in regard to anything that he did. It can only be recorded that it was accomplished.

Friends of Father Douglass, Missionaries and Charity workers in Behala, Calcutta, 1943.

(Source: Father Douglas of Behala. London, 1952 / Reproduced by courtesy of Oxford University Press)

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Goods in Transit

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Trams and Carts on the Maidan

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)

Scene along Strand Bank Road, north of Howrah Bridge, Calcutta

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Strand Bank Road scene, B034, "Scene along Strand Bank Road, north of Howrah Bridge, Calcutta" seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Carrying a piano through the Maidan

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Piano en route, B015, Carrying a piano through the Maidan. Buildings in background are along today's Esplande Row East. seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Washing down his water buffalo

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Washing down his water buffalo, Rf008, " Workman washing down his water buffalo in Hooghly River a short distance above Howrah Bridge, Calcutta side of the river, 1944." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

Addresses of Transport Companies in 1940

Bengal Bonded Warehouse Association—102 Clive St. Phe., Cal. 205

Calcutta River Transport Association—2 Clive St. Phone, Cal. 475.

Calcutta Landing & Shipping. Co., Ltd. Boating Contractors— 4 Fairlie Place. Phone, Cal. 4627.

Calcutta Tramways Co., Ltd.—7 Church Lane. Phone, Cal. 308. P. 75.

Edwards, Lionel, Ltd. Freight and Steamship Agents—8 Clive Street. Phone, Cal. 6360.

Gladstone Wyllie & Co. Merchants and Agents for Steamship and Insurance Companies—4 Fairlie Place. Phone, Cal. 4626.

Graham's Trading Co. (India) Ltd. Merchants and Agents for Steamship Companies —6 Lyons Range. Phone, Cal. 4700.

Hoare Miller & Co., Ltd. General Merchants. Managing Agents for The Calcutta Steam Navigation Co., Ltd.—5 Fairlie Place. Phone, Cal. 4804.

Indian General Navigation & Railway Co., Ltd.—4 Fairlie Place. Phone, Cal. 5500.

Indian National Airways Ltd. Agents for Imperial Airways, Ltd. and Indian Transcontinental Airways—Victoria House,Chowringhee Square. Phone, Regent 870.

Kilburm & Co. Merchants and Agents for The India General Navigation & Rly- Co., Ltd. : Indian Cardboard Indmcries. Ltd. : Brickfields, Insurance. Tea and Coal Companies—4 Fairlie Place. Phone, Cal. 5500.

Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co. Agents for the B. I. S. N. Co., P. &. 0. S. N. Co. and other Steamship Companies—16 Strand Road. Phone, Cal. 5100.

Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha, Ltd. Agents, for Steamship Companies— 135 Canning Street. Phone, Cal. 1860.

Nippon Yusen Kaisha. Merchants and Agents for Japanese Steamship Companies—2/3 Clive Row. Phone, Cal. 2036.

Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. Agents: Mackinnon Mackenzie &. Co.—16 Strand Road. Phone. Cal. 5100.

Rivers Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. Agents : Macneill & Co.— 2 Fairlie Place. Phone, Cal. 6100.

Walford Transport, Ltd, Automobile Engineers and Transport Agents—71;73 Park Street. Phone, P. K. 1620; Service Station and Stores, 117-119 Park Street. Phone, P.K. 492.

Storage; Hide Road, Kidderpore. Phone, South 559.

Petrol Depot and Breakdown Lorry; 46/1A Chowringhee. Phone, P.K. 1120.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 227-236 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

Merrill's Mules

They arrived in Calcutta from Missouri, Texas and Tennessee—two shiploads of bewildered, seasick, lop-eared army mules. There was no time to train them for jungle warfare. Brigadier General Frank Merrill's Marauders loaded them with mortars, 755, ammunition, radio equipment, food, and started them off on a 700-mile trek to Myitkyina through the Burma jungles.

Few of Merrill's Marauders knew anything about handling mules. Several hundred unhappy G.I.s were pressed into service as muleskinners.

Colonel R. W. Mohri, theater veterinarian, advised: "A mule's every bit as intelligent as a human. To get along with him you need to have as much sense as the mule."

Mule Sense. At first the mules brayed in distress when the caravan was attacked; amateur muleskinners hauled them away in all directions. The mules resisted loudly: they had been taught by U.S. cavalrymen to trot in a decorous file after a bell mare.

Once, at Walawbum, when a Marauder unit was confronted by an overwhelming enemy force, the mules set up such a clamor that the Japs thought they must be outnumbered and withdrew.

The one fright the mules never got used to was the sight of an elephant. The fright was mutual. When elephant met mule there was pandemonium—trumpeting and braying, sometimes a hysterical stampede.

The mules got influenza, gastroenteritis, laminitis, mange, screw worm, sprains, wounds. They got the best medical care from veterinarians attached to the caravan. They were given blood transfusions. The seriously sick and hurt were sent to the rear for repairs.

Jake, Puss, Shorty. Sometimes exhausted mules slipped or fell from steep mountain paths. The muleskinners rescued them at the risk of their own necks. The 'skinners formally named their charges Jake, Puss, Shorty. They called them, "You bastard, you sonofabitch." They defended them passionately from any outside criticism.

At one place the trail climbed 5,400 feet in less than six miles. Natives said Merrill's pack train would never make it. When some weary mules stalled, muleskinners shouldered loads, shoved the weary animals up the mountain.

It took them four months to cover the 700 miles of pestilential jungle, but they made it. Last week many of the mules were still there in the interior of Burma, shuttling supplies around in the battle for Myitkyina. They will probably never bray in Missouri again. When the northern Burma campaign is finished, they will be turned over to the Chinese. Some day they may plod on east over the Burma Road into China.

(source: TIME Magazine, New York, Aug. 7, 1944)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

A bamboo log-hauling cart

There was usually a bamboo log-hauling cart there and even though the cart owner (I guess he was) and pusher showed me the cart's construction. I appreciated him showing me such cart construction techniques that had been used in India for -- well, for a heck of a long time.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

Piano en route

One day I was standing near the tram terminal at the Esplanade, happened to look up and saw what I thought was a small, military formation approaching. Upon second glance, I saw that group of men, perfectly in step, approaching with arms swinging in unison -- and WITH A PIANO ON THEIR HEADS. Now, that WAS A NEW SIGHT to a young fellow from rural Missouri in the USA. The movers, with small, round, weight-cushioning pads between their heads and the piano cabinet, did not seem to be laboring in any way. They stepped swiftly, smoothly along as if they were doing an every day job, and it probably was. All they needed to make the scene perfect was a drummer beating out their step time. However, they really didn't need it, so smooth was their walking. I would liked to have seen how they got that piano up there to start their trek. This scene was quite near the intersection of Dharamtala and Chowringee

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

Bullock carts

“Bullock carts were the popular mode of moving goods and they were usually piled high. Drawn by two bullocks, they plodded along at a steady 2 to 3 mph. Once the animals were pointed in the right direction they ambled on until stopped. The driver usually curled up on top of the goods and went to sleep. A favourite pastime of the lads was to gently take hold of the bullocks heads and swing them round in a half circle without waking the driver so that when he woke up he was heading back the way he had come from.”

Harold P. Lees, RAF, Calcutta, early 1940s

(source: A2808632 Harold P. Lees war part 3 The sights and sounds of Calcutta at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

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Roads

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Calcutta street scene

Seymour Balkin, USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1944

(source: webpage http://40thbombgroup.org/indiapics2.html Monday, 03-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of Seymour Balkin)

Calcutta Street Scene

Seymour Balkin, USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1944

(source: webpage http://40thbombgroup.org/indiapics2.html Monday, 03-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of Seymour Balkin)

Intersection in Calcutta. a Pontiac waiting

Robert Sanders , USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1945

(source: webpage http://40thbombgroup.org/indiapics2.html Monday, 03-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of Bob Sanders)

Another Street Scene

Seymour Balkin, USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1944

(source: webpage http://40thbombgroup.org/indiapics2.html Monday, 03-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of Seymour Balkin)

Old Calcutta

Robert Sanders , USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1945

(source: webpage http://40thbombgroup.org/indiapics2.html Monday, 03-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of Bob Sanders)

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

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Bridges

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Cantilever bridge

Calcutta boasts the third largest cantilever bridge in the world. Its real importance, however, lies in the fact that it serves as Calcutta's gateway to the west, being the city's only bridge spanning the Hooghly. Taking 7 years to build, it cost $10,000,000. It towers 310 feet as the city's highest structure, is 2,150 feet long with a center span of 1,500 feet. It was completed in 1942, opened in February, 1943.

Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s

Busy scene along Strand Bank Road upstream from Howrah Bridge, Calcutta

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Strand Bank Road, B029, "Busy scene along Strand Bank Road upstream from Howrah Bridge, Calcutta" seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Howrah Bridge from Howrah Station side of the river

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Howrah Bridge, H001, Howrah Bridge from Howrah Station side of the river. seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

West approach to Howrah Bridge, Calcutta

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: West approach , H002, "West approach to Howrah Bridge, Calcutta, " seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Howrah Bridge from Howrah side toward

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Looking to Calcutta, H004, "Howrah Bridge from Howrah side toward ," seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Maj. Danny Rogers Howrah Bridge in background

Seymour Balkin, USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1944

(source: webpage http://40thbombgroup.org/indiapics2.html Monday, 03-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of Seymour Balkin)

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

this bridge carries a heavier volume of traffic than London Bridge

Howrah is linked with Calcutta by the Howrah Bridge, which spans the river Hooghly. The bridge is of the floating type with the whole structure supported on steel pontoons. In order to allow the passage of vessels too large to pass under the bridge, the Authorities arrange to open it at previously notified times, generally at night. This is done by floating upstream the two centre pontoons, each carrying 100 feet of roadway and swinging them to lie clear or the 200 feet gap thus formed.

In 1871, Sir Bradford Leslie, Chief Engineer of the East Indian Railway, designed and constructred the bridge from parts manufactured in England, completing it in 1874, at a cost of £220,000. Its length is 1,528 feet between alignments. This structure was built to last for 25 years and it is an eloquent testimonial ro the constructors, that it has long outlived the period and is today carrying a volume of traffic which was neither provided for nor taken into calculation when the bridge was designed and constructed. Great credit is also due to the Bridge Commissioners for maintaining the bridge in a safe and serviceable condition.

The steady incrcease of traffic and the advent of motor transport, in recent years, necessitated the replacement of the old shore spans by modern and wider ones and this was done in 1928 by Messrs. Jessop & Company with complete success and without any dislocation of traffic.

The bridge is crowded at all hours, especially in the mornings and evenings, when suburban passengers arrive and depart from Calcutta. It has been calculated that this bridge carries a heavier volume of traffic than London Bridge.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source page 11-12 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

It is estimaited that the bridge will be completed in 1941

After many years of controversy and indecision, a modern bridge of the cantilever type is now being constructed by the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Co., Limited (London) after the design of their Consulting Engineers, Messrs. Rendel, Palmer and Tritton, at an estimated cost of Rs, 214 lakhs.

The new bridge will be sited approximately 650 feet upstream from the existing bridge, and will have a main span of l,500 feet centres of towers, made up of a central suspended span 564 feet long and two cantilever arms each 468 feet long- The anchor arms will each have a length of 325 feet, and the towers will rise to a height of approximately 270 feet above road level. The bridge will carry a road of 71 feet clear width between kerbs and will accommodate eight lines of rehicular traffic, including two tramway tracks running along the centre of the roadway. Pedestrian traffic will be accommodated by two 15 feet wide footpaths. It is estimaited that the bridge will be completed in 1941.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source page 12 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

The pontoon bridge must be unique

There is no doubt about it, Calcutta really is incredible -- a seething mass of all types and conditions of men. So from Howrah across the Hooghly.

The pontoon bridge must be unique. It was constructed in 1871 and expected to last twenty-five years. The bridge is usually crowded with lorries and carries a heavier volume of traffic than London Bridge. It is of the floating type with the whole structure supported on the steel pontoons. In order to allow the passage of vessels too large to pass under the bridge, the authorities arranged to open it at previously notified times, generally at night. This is done by floating upstream for two central pontoons, each carrying 100 feet of roadway and swinging them to lie clear of the 200 foot gap thus formed. Of course, I am writing of the Calcutta I knew. This exotic contraction has nowbeen replaced, I understand, by a modern cantilever bridge which should be more efficient, though you can never be quite sure, this being India.

Harry Tweedale, RAF Signals Section, Calcutta, 29^th April 1942

(source: A6665457 TWEEDALE's WAR Part 11 Pages 85-92 at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

Ferry from Eden Gardens across to Calcutta Botanical Gardens.

Did I ever go on ferry trips? The only one I remember was from somewhere near Eden Gardens across to the Calcutta Botanical Gardens.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

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Ferries

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Hooghly ferry several miles upstream from Calcutta

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Hooghly ferry, Rf004, "Hooghly ferry several miles upstream from Calcutta metro area." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Passenger ferry landing upriver somewhere near Belur Math

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Passenger ferry landing, Rf032, " Passenger ferry landing upriver somewhere near Belur Math, Calcutta vicinity." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

Launches on the Hooghly

My father worked for the Calcutta Steam Navigation Company, managed by Hoare, Miller & Company whose office was at 5 Fairlie Place, across the river from Howrah Station. They operated a fleet of launches which towed several barges, known as lighters, which had no power of their own and were therefore totally dependent upon their towing launches for speed and direction. Most of the sea-going vessels entering the Port of Calcutta had their cargo off loaded in mid-stream into these lighters for delivery to the many factories that were on both sides of the Hooghly river. These ranged from petroleum at Budge Budge, 16 miles downstream from the City to jute mills, rubber factories, brick –kilns, paint & varnish makers, engineering companies etc. During the period we are talking about, of course, there was a vast amount of strategic material also coming in by river. One of the perks we were able to enjoy was having the use of a company launch at an occasional week-end to take trips up and down the river.

Mike Devery, schoolboy. Calcutta, 1940s

(source: Internet communications September 2004)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Mike Devery)

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Suburban Railways

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Passenger cars lined up behind Sealdah Station in Calcutta

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Passenger cars, Rr002, Passenger cars lined up behind Sealdah Station in Calcutta. seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Passengers unloading from narrow gauge train at station in Alipore, Diamond Harbor Road and the canal

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Unloading passengers, Rr019, "Passengers unloading from narrow gauge train at station in Alipore, Diamond Harbor Road and the canal." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

Commuters at Diamond Harbor

While I'm sounding off, you will have noticed some digital collection images showing a narrow guage railroad with white-dressed passengers getting off. It was identified with the initials, "K F". I never did know where the passengers were arriving from, but it was interesting to see them arrive in the morning and depart every evening. The terminal was just across Diamond Harbor road from our base. I always anticipated they ware commuters.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

human beings clinging to the sides of the carriages

“Every time a train left the station there were human beings clinging to the sides of the carriages and sitting on the roofs. The railway staff made valiant and unsuccessful attempts to knock off the surplus bodies but they were like a colony of bees around a nest. Every time one was dislodged another took his place.”

Harold P. Lees, RAF, Calcutta, early 1940s

(source: A2808632 Harold P. Lees war part 3 The sights and sounds of Calcutta at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

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Calcutta Tramways

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Afternoon monsoon clouds form over the Maidan and Calcutta's downtown tram terminus

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Monsoon clouds, Mf011, "Afternoon monsoon clouds form over the Maidan and Calcutta's downtown tram terminus." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Esplanade trolley junction point

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Trolley, C002, Esplanade trolley junction point. Chung Sun Chinese restaurant is visible at far left. Was a really good place to get Chinese food seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Tram terminus at Esplande Row East and former Chowringee. First car, first class; second car, second class

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Tram terminus, C012, "Tram terminus at Esplande Row East and former Chowringee. First car, first class; second car, second class." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Tram terminus scene

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Tram terminus scene, C027, Tram terminus scenes. seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Tram terminus scene

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Tram terminus scene, C028, Tram terminus scenes. seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Red Cross Club

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Red Cross Club, C005, "North along today's Old Courthouse Street. At left is Dalhousie Square. Building at right with American Flag was the American Red Cross club for American servicemen. Church at left is on today's Lal Bazaar Street." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Rushing for the Tram

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)

Indian Commuters

Indians are the bravest commuters in the world. They hang from every handhold. The two shown here, however, are bent on clinching a seat before the car fills. Ancient double-decker buses sway and chug under the strain of double overloads and trams make packed New York subways seem comfortable by comparison.

Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s

Tram workers on strike

Indicative of the resumption of an age-old struggle for decent conditions is this immediate post-war picture of tram-workers on strike. The strike lasted nine days but employees won par of their demands.

Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

CALCUTTA TRAMWAYS COMPANY

The Calcutta Tramways Company was formed in 1879, following an agreement with the Calcutta Corporation.The gauge of the original tram lines was only 3 feet 3/8 inches, and passengers were carried by means of horse trams, except on the Kidderpore line, and for a short time on Chowringhee Road, where steam tractors were used.

This continued till 1902 when, under a fresh agreement with the Calcutta Corporation, the Tramways Company widened their gauge to 4 feet 8 ½ inches and ran their trams by electric power. By 1908, they had extended the service to Alipore, Behala, Tollygunge. Baghbazar, Belgatchia, Harrison Road and Lower Circular Road, and had also inaugurated the Howrah section.

Further extensions were made to Rajabazar in 1910, to Park Circus in 1925 and to Ballygunge in 1928, and Government Sanction has now been obtained for the extension of the tramway track from Rajabazar on Upper Circular Road to Shambazar. A scheme to extend the service from Park Circus along Syed Ameer Alt Avenue, Old Ballygunge Road and Gariahat Road to the Dhakuria Lakes, has been under consideration for some time.

The number of tramcars in daily use in Calcutta is estimated at 300, including 6 composite and 115 articulated cars, which are second to none in the world. A further 30 articulated cars will take the road shortly. This improvement in rolling stock has been effected by the Calcutta Tramways Company at very considerable expense, but the travelling public's appreciation of the Company's efforts in their service, is proving beyond doubt the popularity of the Tramways as an important utility service.

The Company operates approximately 40 miles of double track and employs a staff of about 7000, out of which over 6000 are Indians. The number of passengers carried in 1886 was 8, 599,799: in 1902, 15,048,273 while in 1930 the number had increased' to 80,000,000 and in 1937 to over 103,000,000.

The Company offers the following concessions:

Monthly Tram Tickets, Rail-cum-Tram Tickets, Six-annas All-Day Tickets on holidays and Sundays, and Cheap Midday fares on weekdays, except Saturdays and holidays.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 75-78 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

ROLLING STOCK, TRACK AND STAFF

The number of tramcars in daily use in Calcutta is estimated at 300, including 6 composite and 115 articulated cars, which are second to none in the world. The Company operates approximately 40 miles of double track and employs a staff of about 7000, out of which over 6000 are Indians.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 75-78 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

PASSENGER NUMBERS

The number of passengers carried in

1886 was 8, 599,799; in

1902, 15,048,273, while in

1930 it was 80,000,000 and in

1937 more than 103,000,000. John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 75-78 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

CONCESSION TICKETS

The Company offers the following concessions:

- Monthly Tram Tickets,

- Rail-cum-Tram Tickets,

- Six-annas All-Day Tickets on holidays and Sundays, and

- Cheap Midday fares on weekdays (except Saturdays and holidays.)

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 75-78 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

TRAMWAY ROUTES

ALIPORE SECTION: - Esplanade to Kalighat Tram Depot: via Dufferin and

Kidderpore Roads

(across Maidan) Kidderpore Bridge, Diamond Harbour Road,

Judge's Court Road, Hazra Road, Russa Road.

Route Indicator at Night : —0ne yellow, one red headlight.

BALLYGUNGE SECTION: - Dalhousie Square to Ballygunge Railway Station:

via Esplanade, Chowringhee Road,

Ashutosh Mukerjee Road, Russa Road, Rash Behari Avenue,

Ekdalia Road.

Route Indicator at Night : —Two red headlights.

BEHALA SECTION :- - Esplanade to Behala: via Dufferin and Kidderpore Roads

(across the Maidan), Kidderpore Bridge, Diamond Harbour Road,

across Majerhat Bridge, past the Greyhound Racing Stadium.

Route Indicator at Night :—0ne green, one red headlight.

CHITPORE SECTION:- - Esplanade to Baghbazar: via Bentinck Street, Lower and Upper

Chitpore Roads.

Dalhousie Square to Baghbazar: via Lall Bazar Street,

Lower and Upper Chitpore Roads.

Route Indicator at Night : --One blue, one green headlight.

- Esplanade to Belgatchia: via Bentinck Street

Lower and Upper Chitpore Roads,

Grey Street, Cornwallis Street, R. G. Kar Road.

- Dalhousie Square to Belgatchia: via Lall Bazar Street,

Lower and Upper Chitpore Roads,

Grey Street, Cornwallis Street. R. G. Kar Road.

Route Indicator at Night : —Two blue headlights.

DHARAMTALA- STRAND COMBINED SERVICE:

- Rajabazar to Nimtola: via Upper and Lower Circular Roads,

Molali (Entally), Dharamtala, Esplanade. Dalhousie Square,

Strand Road, past Howrah Bridge.

Route Indicator at Night: —One red, one green headlight.

HARRISON ROAD SECTION: - Park Circus to High Court: via Park Street (New),

Lower Circular Road, Molali (Entally). Sealdah, Harrison Road,

Strand Road.

Route Indicator at Night : —Two white headlights.

KALIGHAT SECTION: - Dalhousie Square to Kaligbat: via Esplanade, Chowringhee Road,

Ashutosh Mukerjee Road, Russa Road.

Route Indicator at Night : —Two red headlights.

KIDDERPORE SECTION: - Esplanade to Kidderpore: via Dufferin and Kidderpore Roads

(across the Maidan), Kidderpore Bridge.

Circular Garden Reach Road.

Route Indicator at Night: —One blue, one red headlight.

SEALDAH SECTION: - Sealdah Station to High Court: via Bow Bazar Street,

Lall Bazar Street, Dalhousie Square, Strand Road (South).

Route Indicator at Night :—Two green headlights.

SHAMBAZAR SECTION: - Esplanade to Shambazar: via Dharamtala Street, Wellington Street,

College Street, Cornwallis Street.

- Dalhousie Square to Shambazar: via Lall Bazaar Street, Bow Basar

Street, College Street, Cornwailis Street.

Route Indicator at Night: —One yellow, one blue headlight.

TOLLYGUNGE SECTION: - Dalhousie Square to Tollygunge Tram Depot: via Esplanade,

Chowringhee Road, Ashutosb Mukerjee Road, Russa Road (South),

Tollygunge Bridge.

Route Indicator at Night: —Two red headlights.

WELLESLEY SECTION:- Dalhousie Square to Park-Circus : via Esplanade,

Dharamtala Street, Wellesley Street. Royd Street,

Elliott Road. Lower Circular Road. New Park Street.

Route Indicator at Night: —One blue, one white headlight.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 75-78 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

First-class tram fare from Lake Market to Dalhousie was one anna then

First-class tram fare from Lake Market to Dalhousie was one anna then. There were counsellors in the coaches who advised passengers to travel by tram. Newspapers used to carry strip advertisements like “Travel by Tram” and “Use Electricity”.

(N.S. Mani, newly employed office worker from Kerala, Calcutta, February 1945

(source: Telegraph Thursday, October 27, 2005)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with N.S. Mani )

a double jointed tramcar

“Only those who have been fortunate enough to have seen a double jointed tramcar moving along the centre of the street would believe it possible for so many surplus bodies to claw a hold on the outside of a tram and stay there as the tramcar moved. The only place the hangers on didn’t occupy was the roof. To see that you had to travel by train”

Harold P. Lees, RAF, Calcutta, early 1940s

(source: A2808632 Harold P. Lees war part 3 The sights and sounds of Calcutta at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright

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Bus Services

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Calcutta Bus on Chowringhee

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

History of Calcutta Bus service

The pioneer of the Calcutta Suburban Bus Service was one A. Sobhan, who, though he did not maintain a regular service, ran buses from the suburbs to the city.

In about 1924, Walford & Co. introduced a regular bus service into Calcutta, their lead being followed shortly after by the Tramways Company and gradually by others.

Each bus carries a board in front displaying a service number, and the route and the names of the localities through which it runs : the route and the bus number is also shown on the sides.

It is a general practice to refer to a bus by its service number.

The number of buses plying on the road in 1924 were only 55, which number increased to 280 in 1925 and to 800 in 1936-1937.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages78-79 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

BUS ROUTES

Bus routes are divided into Town and Suburban.

TOWN

No. 2 :—Shambazar to Kalighat : via Cornwallis Street, College Street, Bowbazar Street. Lall Bazar Street, Dalhousie Square, Esplanade, Chowringhee, Ashurosh Mukerjee Road. Ruaaa Road.

No. 2A :—Shambazar to Kalighat : via Cornwallis Street, College Street, 'Wellington Street, Dharamtala, Chowringhee, Ashutoah Mukerjee Road, Russa Road.

No. 3 ;—Shambazar to Kidderpore : via Upper and Lower Circular Roads, Molali (Entally), Dharamtala. Chowringhee, Ashutosh Mukerjee Road. Russa Road, Hazra Road, Judge's Court Road, Diamond Harbour Road.

No. 3A :—Shambazar to Sakharbazar : via Upper Circular Road, Sealdah, Bow Bazar Street, Lall Bazar Street, Dalhousie Square. Esplanade, Dufferin and Kidderpore Roads, Kidderpore Bridge, Diamond Harbour Road, Majerhat Bridge, Behala.

No. 4 :—Baghbazar to Tollygunge Railway Bridge: via Upper and Lower Chicpore Roads, Bentinck Street, Chowringhee, Ashutosh Mukerjee Road, Russa Road.

No. 4A:— Baghbazar to Tollygunge Railway Station : via Upper and Lower Chitpore Roads, Lall Bazar Street. Dalhousie, Chowringhee, Ashutosh Mukerjee Road. Ruasa Road.

No. 5. Howrah Station to Kalighat: via Strand Road, Dalhousie Square, Esplanade, Chowringhee Road, Ashutosh Mukerjee Road and Russa Road.

No. 8. Howrah Station to BalIygange Station: via Strand Road, Dalhousie Square, Esplanade, Dharamtala Street, Wellesley Street. Royd Street, Elliott Road. Lower Circular Road, Lansdowne Road, Hazra Road. Gariahat Road, Rash Behari Avenue, Ekdalia Road.

No. 8A- Howrah Station to Dhakuria Lake: Same as No. 8 up to Gariahat Road, then across Rash Behari Avenue to Dhakuria Lake.

No. 10. Howrah Station to Ballygange Railway Station: via Harrison Road, Lower Circular Eoad, New Park Street. Syed Ameer Ali Avenue, Old Ballygange Road, Gariahat Road, Rash Behari Avenue and Ekdalia Road.

No. 11. Howrah Station to Shambazar: via Harrison Road and Upper Circular Road.

No. llA. Howrah Station to Shambazar: via Strand Road (North), New Jagannath Ghat Road, Vivekenanda Road, Maniktala Spur and Upper Circular Road.

No. 12:—Dufferin Road to Matiabruz : via Kidderpore Road, Kidderpore Bridge, Circular Garden Reach Road, Dumayne Avenue, Garden Reach Road, Bengal Nagpur Railway Head Offices, Nimakmahal Road, Circular Garden Reach Road (South), Matiahruz (Raja Bagan).

No. 12B :—Same Route as No. 12 to Matiabrua. (Badertola).

No. 13:— Dalhousie Square to Maniktala Main Road : via Esplanade, Central Avenue, Beadon Street, across Upper Circular Road, Maniktala Road.

No. 14:—Dalhousie Square to Ultadingi : via Esplanade, Central Avenue, Vivekananda Road, Maniktala Spur, Maniktala Road, Canal East Road.

SUBURBAN

No 30: -Shambazar to Goripore : via Tala Bridge. Bacrackpore Trunk Road, Dum Dum Road, Jessore Road, Aerodrome.

No. 32: -Shambazar to Dakhineswar : via Galiff Street, Chitpore Bridge, Cossipore Road, Baranagore, Gopalal Tagore Road, Hedger Road, Hastie Road, Lalgaria.

No. 33: -Shambaaar to Baranagote - Same Route as No. 32.

No. 33: -Paikpara to Rifle Road : via Belgatchia, R. G. Kar Road, Upper and Lower Circular Roads, South Road, Entally, Dehi Serampore Road, Tiljala.

No. 35: -Sealdah to Joramundir : via Belliaghatta Road, Belliaghatta Main Road, Joramundir.

No. 36: -Sealdah to Narkeldanga : via Upper Circular Road, Gag Street, Narkeldanga Main Road.

No. 38: -Sealdah to Matpuker : via Belliaghatta Road, Palmer Bazar Road, Tangra Road, Chingrighatta, Hughes Road.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 78-79 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

She is darn close to being neurotic herself

Mrs. Wale was very upset this morning, having had her head knocked against a support in the bus by a careless GI driver. She protests bitterly to me, but there is nothing I can do. She is darn close to being neurotic herself,

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta, October 14, 1945

(Source: page 217 of Elaine Pinkerton (ed.): “From Calcutta With Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard” Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2002 / Reproduced by courtesy of Texas Tech University Press)

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

The Race to Barrackpore

From there followed a 5 day train journey to Calcutta in East Bengal where, on arrival, at 12 noon, we had the opportunity to inspect the platform at Howrah station, which, without food or water, we did until 12 midnight. Much to our relief, we piled into coaches for the final lap of our journey. The name Barrackpore rattled around the coach. This cantonment was 14 miles from Calcutta and we had been warned not to encourage the Indian drivers to race each other. Needless to say, that is exactly what happened. Fortunately, at that time of the early morning, there was not much traffic on the roads. When we arrived at our destination it was agreed that, although the other driver had won, he had cheated as he had driven on the road instead of the grass.

At last, we thought, a hearty meal and then a good sleep. We were quickly disillusioned as the N.C.O informed us that we shouldn’t have been there at all and we would have to drive back to “Cal” as it became affectionately known. Following about one and a half hours dozing in the coach at Barrackpore, it was about 4 in the morning when we finally arrived at our correct destination to be greeted by some not so friendly cooks who had been awakened to give some breakfast.

Jim Homewood, Royal Air Force, Calcutta, May 1942

(source: A5760281 My War - Part 3 at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

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Taxis in Calcutta

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Sikh taxi-driver

Of Calcutta's assortment of colorful and intriguing characters, the Sikh taxi-driver and his co-pilot rank high. The co-pilot was added in 1944 following an affray in which a soldier knifed a driver. The two GI's shown here are doing their best to convey their destination to the driver of the ancient jalopy.

Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s

Calcutta Taxi Stand

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

Number of Taxis in Calcutta

A total of 2.000. each fitted with a taximeter, which automatically records the fare when travelling, and waiting charges when stationary.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 81 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

TARIFF RATES

Annas 8 for the first mile or part of a mile, and

annas 2 for every subsequent quarter of a mile.

Minimum charge, annas eight.

Waiting Charges, annas 2 for every four minutes.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 81 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

If you ride in a taxicab, tonga, or rickshaw

If you ride in a taxicab, tonga, or rickshaw, settle the fare before you get in. The prices of any service should be fixed in advance or you may have an argument when the time comes to pay, and in any such argument the stranger is at a disadvantage and usually loses.

(source: “A Pocket Guide to India” Special Service Division, Army Service Forces, United States Army. War and Navy Departments Washington D.C [early 1940s]: at: http://cbi-theater-2.home.comcast.net/booklet/guide-to-india.html)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

I didn’t know where I was supposed to be

Calcutta!

I was lost, and this time the crux of the matter was that I didn’t know where I was supposed to be.

It was New Year’s Day, 1946. It was nearly midnight and I was alone, on foot, about a mile outside Calcutta on a silent forest road. That much I did know because I had just walked from the Excelsior Cinema, Chowringhee, in the centre of Calcutta.

How stupid can you get? said the voice of my father inside my head.

Rubbish, I said. It could have happened to anyone.

You mean, like the scissors?

I knew exactly what he meant. I was about six, then, and helping him cut the lawn. He asked me to get the scissors. Wondering about this I went to the kitchen and got the scissors. Then as I took them out of the drawer I understood. With these, you could trim the edge of grass that butted on to the fence because you could push the small point behind the tufts and snip them easily.

In the garden I knelt down by the fence and had a go. It was a good idea, but it was going to be a long job.

I jumped at his laugh behind and above me.

‘No-o! The scissors - you know, the clippers, the shears!’

Getting them from the shed I felt myself go hot with embarrassment but I told myself it could have happened to anyone.

This time I should have known better. That same afternoon, with two other RAF men, I had arrived in Calcutta. We had been picked up in a jeep from our Dakota aircraft at Dum Dum airfield north of the city.

My problems began at the moment of departure from the airfield. Had I kept my wits about me I would have noted that we crossed the River Hooghly via Howrah Bridge, turned on to the Barrackpore road and travelled about ten miles out to our unit in the wilds of a village called Bally.

But I did not keep my wits about me. My wits, as life was later to impress upon me, were not the sort you could keep on a lead.

As we were shown into the long hut we were told that a gharrie (in Service terms a covered Bedford 3-ton truck) would be doing a Liberty Run into Calcutta city in half an hour’s time. Would we like to see the sights? The gharrie would drop us and then, at ten o’clock in the evening, pick us up at the same spot to take us back to base.

We threw our bags on our beds, showered and changed and the three of us climbed up into the back of the gharrie. We wandered along Chowringhee and had an expensive meal at Firpo’s. I said I wanted to see the film at The Excelsior. They weren’t keen, so we split and arranged to meet a little before ten at the appointed spot.

The Excelsior was big, with red velvet seats and icy air-conditioning. After the film ended I went out into the blast of heat in Chowringhee and looked at my watch. It was five to ten.

At two minutes to ten I arrived at the meeting point. Neither the gharrie nor the other two men were to be seen. I waited for ten minutes. Then it became worrying. I called a taxi. The driver’s friendly Sikh face smiled broadly at me.

‘And you go to -?’

‘The RAF Station at,’ I said, and stopped. It was like walking into a glass door: I couldn’t tell him, and I didn’t immediately know why.

In the armed forces you get used to having your hand held whenever you move. Jeeps take you to railway stations, RAF Police Corporals point you to your train and more RAF Police wait for your arrival and get you to your transport which takes you to your new unit. So, instead of noting important things like names of places and serial numbers by which Air Ministry establishments tend to be known, you dwell dreamily on the scenery.

I had no notion of the name of the village to which I had been posted, the number of the RAF Unit, and certainly not the name of the road by which to reach it. And, beyond my twelve-fifty identity card, I had no papers on me to help. They were all lying on my bed somewhere in what is now Bangladesh.

The taxi driver’s eyes lit up.

‘Ah, you forget name?’ I nodded and he began listing military-sounding addresses, but I shook my head at each one. I knew I would have recognised it had he said it. Sikhs are not easily put off by western or any other oddities, but I could see that my taxi driver was beginning to sense that he was dealing with an oddity of quite another order. He left.

Then I had the solution. If there were as many military stations as he had revealed there would be military trucks speeding between them and the city. All I had to do was to choose one of the roads (I knew it had been a long, straight one) and walk along it, wave down anything that approached from behind me and give the driver any information I could think of. As I walked, I began to formulate sharp words of complaint to my so far unknown commanding officer about drivers who did not keep to their schedule.

I was half an hour along this road before anything hailable came. It was an American Air Force jeep, and it stopped

‘Well, Hi, there, fella. Wanna lift?’

I explained. The enormous engine idly crackled away and they shook their heads and drew on their cigars. Then one of them snapped his fingers.

‘Climb in,’ he said.

He had an idea. They would take me to their own unit and get their files out and phone around. This they did. They found my unit, rang it, then gave me a meal and a comfortable bed.

In the morning they gave me a breakfast, huge, hot and aromatic.

‘English breakfast, huh?’ said the white-aproned GI, putting it in front of me and surrounding me with sauces.

An hour later I stood to attention in front of my own C.O. at what I now knew was No 329 Maintenance Unit in the village of Bally, on the Barrackpore Road. He started with a run-down of the unit’s search activities from 10.30 the previous night. This was brisk and to the point. Then he gave me his own private opinion of my behaviour. To this he devoted more time. I decided not to complain about drivers.

Paul Wigmore, Royal Air Force , Calcutta, New Years Day 1946

(source: A2849484 Another Innocent Abroad Edited at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

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Hackney Carriages

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Old Dobbins last Stand – The Horse Gharrie

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)

Public transportation awaits passengers arriving at Howrah Station

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Howrah Station, Rr007, "Public transportation awaits passengers arriving at Howrah Station. View from Howrah Station. Howrah bridge and nearby ghats in background." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Looking toward South Strand Road

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Looking toward South Strand Road, Rr008, "From Howrah Station, looking across toward South Strand Road's warehouse and ship mooring area. This view is downstream from the second level of the station, shows public transportation waiting for passengers.." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Public transportation waits out in front of Sealdah Station, Calcutta

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Sealdah Station, Rr011, "Public transportation waits out in front of Sealdah Station, Calcutta." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Public transportation waits out in front of Sealdah Station, Calcutta

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

British soldiers on a carriage

(source: correspondence with Pamela Walker (her father is in the picture) / Reproduced by courtesy ofPamela Walker)

Nightfall in Calcutta

Nightfall in Calcutta stirs the imagination and curiosity as to what goes on down dimly-lit alleys often leads an occasional soldier into the out-of-bounds areas. If you don't know the way, five rupees will buy a trip to the few still existent brothels in one of the garies shown here. (Warning: MP's take a poor view).

Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

Number of Hackney Carriages

1^st class 5

2^nd class 1076

3^rd class 125

Each conveyance carries a schedule list of tariff rates, giving details of charges per hours and per mile.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 81 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

If you ride in a taxicab, tonga, or rickshaw

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

Tongas

“Getting about in India, especially in the towns, meant using the transport system that was available. Tongas were popular and they came in various guises and all sorts of conditions. A horse tonga was a two-wheeled contraption pulled by a horse that was so old and decrepit that you felt you should load the scrawny animal onto the tonga and grab the shafts yourself.”…

“Then there was the Calcutta tonga. This resembled a derelict garden shed on four wheels drawn by two horses. It was known as a flea circus because if you were foolish enough to take a ride on one you may very well come out alive with them”

Harold P. Lees, RAF, Calcutta, early 1940s

(source: A2808632 Harold P. Lees war part 3 The sights and sounds of Calcutta at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

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Rickshaws

_Pictures of 1940s Calcutta____________________

Public transportation awaits passengers in front of Howrah Station, Calcutta

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Howrah Station, Rr015, "Public transportation awaits passengers in front of Howrah Station, Calcutta." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Howell and Burger. Calcutta rickshaw

Robert Sanders , USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1945

(source: webpage http://40thbombgroup.org/indiapics2.html Monday, 03-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of Bob Sanders)

More of the same

Robert Sanders , USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1945

(source: webpage http://40thbombgroup.org/indiapics2.html Monday, 03-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of Bob Sanders)

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

Number of Rickshaws

There are a total of 5,807 Rickshaws on the road.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 81 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

If you ride in a taxicab, tonga, or rickshaw

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

_Memories of 1940s Calcutta___________________

My first rickshaw ride

My first rickshaw ride was from the Red Cross to the New Market. We had heard about it so were anxious to go there first. I'll never forget watching the puller as he jogged along, ringing his hand bell with nearly every step. His sweat-soaked shirt fluttered in the breeze and he, in fairly good English, described some of the sights we were seeing. He knew we were newcomers into town and seemed proud to be showing off his city, such as it was.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

The bicycle rickshaw

“The modern version of the horse tonga was the bicycle rickshaw. Depending on the age of the rickshaw wallah you proceeded at the pace of dead slow to Tour de France speed….the streets of the city teemed with them. The stamina of some of the rickshaw wallahs as they jogged along for miles if necessary would have made them good prospects for the Olympic marathon. But to take a ride through a place like Bombay or Calcutta was like teaming up with the Angel of Death. They worked on the principle that they had more right to use the thoroughfares than any other form of transport and nipped between heavy gharries and shot across the front of moving tramcars and played at silly devils with bullock carts and private cars and anything that moved”

Harold P. Lees, RAF, Calcutta, early 1940s

(source: A2808632 Harold P. Lees war part 3 The sights and sounds of Calcutta at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

a traffic policeman walloped a rickshaw

Saw a traffic policeman walloped a rickshaw walla holding his rickshaw up at the time, for stepping forward when the traffic was stopped at a junction. The rickshaw walla did nothing, they were used to being treated like nothing, he just picked himself up off the ground.

Ernest Thomas Clifford, Royal Air Force, Calcutta, 1944

(source: A2615726 tom clifford - the war years 2 at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

Daddy and the box

Just off this street was a large covered market where there were stalls which sold practically everything — except motor cars and ships — and this place is called Hogg's Market. This of course is nothing to do with pigs, although some of the smells reminded Daddy of these animals. After looking round nearly all the stalls Daddy noticed the prices of the things were a good deal higher than in Bombay, but the boxes were cheaper, and after looking at quite a number he bought one, and while he waited an Indian printed on the lid his number, rank, name and also R.A.F.

Daddy was then faced with the problem of getting this big box back to the camp, so he called a coolie who carried it outside and then went off to find a rickshaw. In due course back he came with one, and Daddy told the rickshaw puller where to go and then settled down quietly in his seat with the big box on his knees. Now, it was almost three miles back to the camp, and as it was dark the heat of the day had nearly all gone, and it was very pleasant going along slowly and sometimes fairly quickly when the rickshaw puller had enough breath. It was also very quiet except for the traffic, because the wheels of the rickshaw had rubber on them like Gillian's pram wheels. After floating along for about an hour it was apparent that the puller did'nt know where he was — and still less where Daddy's camp was — Here was a pretty kettle of fish because there were not many people about, and it was dark, and quite a strange place to your Daddy, and moreover he could'nt speak very much Urdu or Hindustani — which are the languages of the Indians — or, at least most of them. However Daddy knew from the general direction in which he had come that he could'nt be a long way from the camp, so off the rickshaw puller went making a circular tour round the neighbourhood. After about another hour we were fortunate to meet an Indian who could speak English, and who knew where the camp was, so it was'nt long before we were back. By this time the poor rickshaw puller was quite tired, and although it was his fault as he should have, known where to go, Daddy was sorry for him, so instead of giving him eight annas for the fare Daddy gave him a rupee — so then we both felt a good deal better — When Daddy had carried the big box back to his hut he unpacked his kitbag and packs, and put all the things and the bags in the box, and they just filled it to the top. Whenever Daddy had to travel about India after that he only had one thing to look after, and that was the box, which had a padlock on it so that no one could open it except Daddy. This box would also come in very useful when Daddy had to come home and he could put plenty of presents and other things in it then for Mummy, David, Gillian and number twenty two Kedale Road. Just now though, the box was very heavy indeed, and Daddy did'nt envy the coolies who would have to carry it on their heads!

Leonard Charles Irvine, 4393843, Royal Air Force Flt Sgt Nav, Calcutta, 1945

(source: Leonard Charles Irvine "A LETTER TO MY SON" at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

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Transport

Introduction

Transpport

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

Calcutta traffic

Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

CITY TRANSPORTATION

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_______________________

Bicycles

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

Cyclist at 142nd US Military Hospital

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

Cycling through the Monsoon

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta, October 22, 1945.

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_______________________

Cycling

Mike Devery, schoolboy. Calcutta, 1940s

(source: Internet communications September 2004)

hire bicycles for an-anna-an-hour

Nilima Dutta, Calcutta. 1930-40s

Automobiles

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_______________________

The end of Speeding in Calcutta

Mike Devery, schoolboy. Calcutta, 1940s

(source: Internet communications September 2004)

An Accident on the Barrackpore Road

Dirk Bogarde, Air photographic intelligence officer. Calcutta, Sept. 1945

(source: pages 138-145, Dirk Bogarde: Snakes and Ladders London; Chatto & Windus, 1978.)

Practicing my driving skills

Eric Cowham, Royal Navy, Calcutta, 1945

Driving VIPs

Bernard Miller, South East Asia Command, Motor Transport Section, Calcutta, 1944-5

The Horse Versus Horsepower

Micheal Carritt, ICS officer. Calcutta, 1930s.

(source: Micheal Carritt: A Mole in the Crown. New Delhi: Rupa 1986)

Through Burma with General Slim’s Daimler

Leslie Richard Palmer ( known as Dick), driver to Brigadier Slim, Rangoon to Calcutta, 1945

A day out at the front

Pilot Officer Thirlwell, pilot of an RAF photo-reconnaissance Hurricane. Caclutta, mid 1940s .

(source: page 360, Julian Thompson: “The Imperial War Museum Book of the The War in Burma 1942-1945. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 2002)

Father Brown’s little accident

Friends of Father Douglass, Missionaries and Charity workers in Behala, Calcutta, 1943.

(Source: Father Douglas of Behala. London, 1952 / Reproduced by courtesy of Oxford University Press)

Goods in Transit

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

Trams and Carts on the Maidan

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

Scene along Strand Bank Road, north of Howrah Bridge, Calcutta

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

Carrying a piano through the Maidan

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

Washing down his water buffalo

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

Addresses of Transport Companies in 1940

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40

(source pages 227-236 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

Merrill's Mules

(source: TIME Magazine, New York, Aug. 7, 1944)

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A bamboo log-hauling cart

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

Piano en route

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

Bullock carts

Harold P. Lees, RAF, Calcutta, early 1940s

Roads

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Calcutta street scene

Seymour Balkin, USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1944

Calcutta Street Scene

Seymour Balkin, USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1944

Intersection in Calcutta. a Pontiac waiting

Robert Sanders , USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1945

Another Street Scene

Seymour Balkin, USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1944

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Cyclist at 142^nd US Military Hospital

___Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta_

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Harry Tweedale, RAF Signals Section, Calcutta, 29^th April 1942

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